Miley Cyrus and a crying cat avatar performed her powerhouse hit 'Wrecking Ball' at the 2013 American Music Awards. Hey, at least she left the life-sized bears, foam fingers and compulsion to twerk at home!

It was a trippy performance (Nov. 24), and it came the day after Miss Miley's 21st birthday.

She wore a two-piece catsuit -- literally, since it was a blue ensemble with a feline heads printed on it -- as the doe-eyed, orange kitten avatar mouthed the lyrics on the screen behind her, surrounded by beams of light.

It was creepy cute, with an emphasis on the creepy over the cute. We sorta wished Miley would have left the cats out of it and just let her face show the emotion of the song and let her voice speak at the highest volume. But at this point, we expect Miley to do things to shock and surprise us. Even so, this perf was tame by her standards, set at the 2013 VMAs.

Cyrus also wore crazy big, clear raver bracelets and huge, ghetto fab earrings, but it was her sculpted, shapely thighs that grabbed our attention as much as the cat did. She could crush a walnut with those things. She has super muscular thighs; it looks like she does a lot of ThighMaster exercises.

During the song's bridge, the faux cat started crying faux tears, while Miley herself got choked up, especially as she sang the "Don't you ever say / I just walked away / I will always want you" part.

Again, taking the kitty out of the equation, you'll recognize that Cyrus' voice was full of power and fire.